Safety of airplane crew and passengers often depends on preventing unauthorized access to the airplane cockpit. Presently, only a weak cockpit door separates the cockpit from the remainder of the aircraft. Preventing unauthorized personnel from gaining control of the cockpit prevents control of the aircraft from being turned over to unauthorized personnel.
The prior art discloses several methods for preventing unauthorized access to the cockpit. U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,644 (Diaz) discloses a control chamber security system having first and second doors defining an access control vestibule. Magnetic locks are provided on the doors and are controlled by a control panel. A video camera monitors the vestibule.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,828 (Benore et al.) discloses an electronic security system having a lock system controlling access to a plurality of enclosures. The lock mechanism has a specific access code allowing opening and closing of the locks on the door to each enclosure.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,845 (Ord) discloses an airplane hijacking prevention system preventing access to a cockpit by a bullet proof door which can be opened only from the cockpit. No means are provided for opening this door in the event of an emergency in the cockpit, such as ill health of the pilot or fire in the cockpit, which makes it impossible to open the cockpit door from the inside.
The Patent Publication No. US 2003/0071743 (Seah et al.) discloses an aircraft having a double door module that forms a cockpit door and galley door. While in the air, the aircraft maintains a secure communication link with an “incident management center” on the ground which transmits commands to the aircraft's onboard computer system for carrying out countermeasures after a threat to the aircraft has been discovered, and an alert mode has been activated, either by the pilot or by the ground control. One of the countermeasures is to lock the cockpit door; that is, the front door of the double door module.
However, no means are provided for preventing the cockpit door from being opened by the pilot or copilot in other aircraft in flight in the event of a security breach in one aircraft.
The U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2003/0052227 (Pittman) discloses a double door module for aircraft, in this case suitable for retrofitting an existing aircraft. Both the cockpit and the galley doors have an automatic lock/release deadbolt mechanism that is openable by the flight crew upon entry of an alphanumeric code in a touch pad, iris scan of the eyeball or fingerprint scan. The alphanumeric code is permanently built into the door lock and cannot be changed by a ground control center.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,599 (Stomski) also discloses a double door arrangement for an aircraft which allows the pilot to enter the galley area during flight when the galley door is closed. However, in the case of a security breach in one aircraft, a ground control center has no ability to lock the cockpit door in other aircraft nor is it possible to unlock the cockpit door in the case of an emergency in the cockpit.
Finally, the Patent Publication No. US 2003/0052798 (Hansoh) discloses an airplane anti-hijack system which sends informational signals, such as audio, video and sensor information as well as flight recorder information to a ground control center to provide real time information to the control center. The control center, in turn, can send informational signals to the aircraft to perform various on board operations, such as dumping fuel, taking over flight control and flying the airplane by remote control. Hanson makes no mention of controlling a cockpit door lock by remote control in the event of a security breach.